The 2004–05 college football season culminated in the first-ever college game between Heisman Trophy winners, but it was a lopsided contest. The University of Southern California (USC), led by 2004 Heisman winner Matt Leinart and coach Pete Carroll, captured its second consecutive national championship and ninth overall by defeating the University of Oklahoma 55–19 in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla., on Jan. 4, 2005. The teams went into the game with identical 12–0 records and with two of the top-ranked defenses in Division I-A of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). USC, however, took advantage of four Oklahoma turnovers, and Leinart threw five touchdowns, including three to Steve Smith, to extend the Trojans’ winning streak to 22 games. It was the second straight defeat in a national championship game for Oklahoma quarterback Jason White, the 2003 Heisman winner, who had lost the previous year to Louisiana State University (LSU), the 2003–04 cochampion. Although teammate Adrian Peterson, the 2004 Heisman runner-up, managed only 82 yd rushing against the Trojans, that helped him set a record for freshmen of 1,925 yd rushing. Forced to pass, White, winner of the Davey O’Brien Award for top quarterback and the Maxwell Award for best player, threw three interceptions, half his regular-season total.

Auburn (13–0), the Southeastern Conference champion, was the first team in the seven-year history of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) not to make the national championship game despite having an unbeaten record in one of the six conferences with automatic berths in the four BCS bowl games. Auburn won the Sugar Bowl, defeating Atlantic Coast Conference winner Virginia Tech (10–3), which was new to the ACC after having bolted the Big East along with the University of Miami (Fla.). Winners of the other BCS conferences were USC (13–0) in the Pacific-10, Oklahoma (12–1) in the Big 12, cochampions Michigan (9–3) and Iowa (10–2) in the Big Ten, and Pittsburgh (8–4) in the depleted Big East.

Utah (12–0) of the Mountain West and Boise State (11–1) of the Western Athletic Conference also had undefeated regular seasons. Utah, the first team from a non-BCS conference to play in a BCS bowl, beat Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl, led by Urban Meyer, named Coach of the Year. The top two scoring teams were Conference USA winner Louisville (11–1) and Boise State, respectively. They met in the Liberty Bowl, where Louisville won 44–40. In other exciting bowl games, a last-play field goal in the Rose Bowl gave Texas (11–1) a 38–37 victory over Michigan in the first matchup between those traditional powerhouses, and Iowa beat LSU (9–3) 30–25 in the Capital One Bowl on a last-second 56-yd touchdown pass.

Victories by Colorado and Ohio State in the Houston Bowl and Alamo Bowl, respectively, were overshadowed by scandals off the field. At Colorado sexual assault allegations against football players led to an investigation that found the team had used sex, alcohol, and drugs as recruiting tools. Though it was never proved that he sanctioned such recruitment methods, Colorado’s coach, Gary Barnett, was suspended for three months in the off-season for offensive comments he made regarding the assault cases. Ohio State suspended quarterback Troy Smith from its bowl game after allegations were made that a booster had given him benefits that violated NCAA rules.

The final rankings diverged slightly after USC, Auburn, and Oklahoma. The writers’ poll chose Utah, Texas, Louisville, Georgia (10–2), Iowa, California (10–2), and Virginia Tech, in that order, but the coaches’ poll reversed the order of Texas-Utah and Georgia-Louisville. Other Division I-A conference winners were Toledo (9–4) in the Mid-American and North Texas (7–5) in the Sun Belt.

In individual awards the Chuck Bednarik Award went to Georgia defensive end David Pollack, who also won the Vince Lombardi Trophy for linemen, and Derrick Johnson of Texas received the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Dick Butkus Award (both for defenders). The Outland Trophy, honouring interior linemen, went to Oklahoma’s Jammal Brown.

Winners of the lower-budget NCAA divisions’ championship tournaments were 13–2 James Madison (Va.) in Division I-AA, 13–1 Valdosta State (Ga.) in Division II, and 13–0 Linfield (Ore.) in Division III, while 12–2 Carroll (Mont.) won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics title.

Professional.

The New England Patriots of the American Football Conference (AFC) defeated the Carolina Panthers of the National Football Conference (NFC) 32–29 to win Super Bowl XXXVIII, held in Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, on Feb. 1, 2004. It was their second National Football League (NFL) championship in three years. Quarterback Tom Brady (seeBiographies) was named the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the second time after throwing three touchdowns and moving the Patriots into position for a game-winning 41-yd field goal by Adam Vinatieri in the final seconds.

The Patriots (14–2) continued their winning streak into the 2004–05 regular season, setting a record for consecutive victories (21). The Pittsburgh Steelers and rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, however, upstaged the Patriots and Brady, finishing with the fourth 15–1 record in NFL history and the first by a team that had a losing record the previous season. Roethlisberger became the starter after Tommy Maddox injured his elbow in the second game, and he led the Steelers to 13 consecutive wins before missing game 16 because of an injury. Along the way, Pittsburgh ended New England’s winning streak and defeated previously unbeaten Philadelphia. Pittsburgh’s defense helped the rookie by allowing league-best per-game averages of 15.7 points, 258.4 total yards, and 81.2 yd rushing.

High scoring was the theme elsewhere in a season that featured 1,268 touchdowns and 11,000 total points. With newly strict enforcement of the five-yard limit for bumping a receiver, five quarterbacks passed for at least 4,000 yd and four threw more than three times as many touchdown passes as interceptions. Peyton Manning of Indianapolis was the game’s marquee quarterback and regular season MVP, breaking Dan Marino’s 20-year-old record for single-season touchdown passes (48) with 49 and Steve Young’s efficiency-rating record with 121.1 points. Manning’s Colts were the first team to have three players catch at least 10 touchdown passes, and Indianapolis averaged 32.6 points and 288.9 yd passing per game, both league highs. Daunte Culpepper of Minnesota led all passers with 4,717 yd and a .692 completion percentage. Quarterback Drew Brees, who had lost the starting job in 2003 owing to poor play, experienced a comeback, guiding San Diego (12–4) to its first winning season and first play-off berth in nine years. His favourite receiver, Antonio Gates, set a record for tight ends with 13 touchdown catches.

During the summer Ricky Williams of Miami abruptly retired, but the league still had plenty of exciting running backs. The Jets’ Curtis Martin led the NFL with 1,697 yd, one more than Seattle’s Shaun Alexander, who topped the league with 20 touchdowns. Martin and Pittsburgh’s Jerome Bettis finished the season fourth and fifth, respectively, among all-time rushing leaders. Leading receivers were Kansas City’s Tony Gonzalez with 102 catches, a record for tight ends, and Carolina’s Muhsin Muhammad with 1,405 yd. Tory Torry Holt of St. Louis set a record with a fifth straight season of more than 1,300 yd receiving.

The balance between the AFC and the NFC tilted heavily toward the former, where division winners Pittsburgh, New England, Indianapolis, and San Diego each won at least 12 games, and the runners-up with “wild-card” play-off berths, the New York Jets and Denver Broncos, went 10–6. In the NFC, division winners Philadelphia, Atlanta, Green Bay, and Seattle had the only winning records, while wild cards Minnesota and St. Louis made the play-offs with 8–8 records.

Two televised episodes provoked controversies that embarrassed the league. The brief exposure of singer Janet Jackson’s breast punctuated a Super Bowl halftime show that featured sexually suggestive lyrics, and the carefully cropped introduction to a Monday night telecast showed TV actress Nicollette Sheridan dropping her shower towel and jumping into the arms of Philadelphia’s Terrell Owens. Outside the court of public opinion, the NFL fared better when the Supreme Court declined to hear Maurice Clarett’s failed challenge to the draft’s eligibility rules.

Among the deaths during the year were Crazylegs Hirsch, Roosevelt Brown, and Reggie White. (SeeObituaries.)